Artificial Wanderer
by Nanenna
Summary: Rockman aka Mega Man Classic series. So what did happen before the first game? Why did Blues leave? Why did Wily turn evil? My take on some of the events leading up to the first game. May go further into them if I feel like it.
1. Goodbye Note

Greetings Rockman (Mega Man) Classic fans! As a rabid Blues (Proto Man) fangirl it is my DUTY to write at least one fic going over the stiff this fic does. Namely: why does Blues leave, where does he go, what does he do? The first chapter is about Blues shortly before he mysteriously disappeared, how he did and a little of the why. I use the Japanese names, because they're easier to write. And I like puns. As the story progresses (if I ever get more written) I'll make sure to have translations of the names ready for you guys. However, there will be no actual Japanese. This is based as much on the game canon as possible and that means the actual events take place in America. Anyways, if you enjoy the fic please let me know. I need encouragement to keep at it or I get bored and go back to spriting or something.

Disclaimer: I don't own any of these characters. None, at least none in this chapter. I don't own the basic premise this story is based on, I do own this story though.

-----

It was another normal day at Light Wily Labs, like so many that had come before. The labs were clean, tidy, and humming with activity, it was amazing that humans could run anything on such a large scale so efficiently. Or so Blues thought as he navigated his way to one of the computer labs on the other side of the complex. Every week like clockwork he made this journey to the computer labs where Dr. Light would run diagnosis programs to test how stable his operating systems were, to make sure his checks and balances system was running correctly, and to measure how well his program was adapting to an ever changing environment.

Blues neither liked nor disliked the tests or the journey across the vast laboratory complex. He saw the journey as a sort of test as he only made the journey once with anyone to guide or watch him. And even on the first trip he was required to walk back on his own to the larger warehouse where final products were stored and had their physical testing done. Since then he had made the journey to and from the computer labs without guide or guardian. Though, as Blues rationalized, he was most likely under surveillance somehow to make sure he didn't do anything unexpected or possibly dangerous.

That didn't stop Blues from neither enjoying nor detesting the weekly journey. He walked the same path he had always walked, avoiding the technicians, mechanics, programmers, interns, and other people going up, down, and across the hallways. Well, maybe today he wouldn't take the usual route per se, as on one occasion the usual route had been completely blocked and he had to find an alternate route. Since then he sometimes took that route for a change of pace, or found a new one just for the sheer interest of looking at something he had conceivably never seen before. There was no danger in this since the entire complex was uniformly built with hallways and laboratories clearly labeled to make finding one's way easy. Dr. Light had commented on this but not disallowed it, he rather seemed delighted. So Blues kept on finding different routes from time to time as a way to amuse himself.

------

Dr. Light was waiting for him, holding a clipboard, beaming down at his first fully functional android quite proudly. "Good morning, Blues. I'm glad to see you made it safely."

"I always do, Dr. Light," replied Blues evenly, a slight smirk on his lips. He never seemed to show much emotion to anyone, but slowly little bits such as smugness or disappointment crept in here and there. Light smiled at Blues, he was pleased that the android looked as if to be developing a bit of personality, small as it may seem.

"Today will be a little different," started Dr. Light. "We're going to run a full systems test rather than the usual platform testing. Dr. Wily and I think it's about time to collect a bit more data than usual to see how you've come along in the past couple months since your activation." Dr. Light beamed proudly at Blues, it was clear he thought the data they collected every day was a good indicator of itself but Wily was a bit more cautious and wanted to take some more concrete measurements as well. "Now why don't you sit right here on this table while I hook you up?" Dr. Light indicated the table he was standing next then started preparing the diagnosis machinery.

Dr. Light went about hooking Blues up to the first diagnostic machine. He meticulously opened panels hidden over Blues's surface, discernible only by tiny creases in his synthetic skin. "How did you like the latest robotics conference?" Dr. Light tried to keep himself and Blues entertained during these otherwise seemingly dull diagnostic runs by conversing with Blues. In the two months and three weeks since Blues was first activated he had been to a grand total of four conventions. That was nearly one every third week! And there was another scheduled in another fortnight and two days, the most recent one having happened but two days ago! Of course Dr. Light and Wily were proud, Blues was the first fully autonomous artificial intelligence housed in a humanoid body to ever be created. They were showing him off and the other scientists were eager to see him.

"It was the same as the other conferences before it. I believe that all robotics conferences appear to be about the same." And they were, he was paraded around, the doctors gave some lectures, they sat through some lectures, then other scientists came up to the doctors and Blues and started poking, prodding, and inspecting Blues as if he weren't a sentient being that could hear everything they said.

The doctor nodded as he finished hooking up the wires. "But did you enjoy yourself?" Blues suspected this was another test, it seemed everything everyone said to Blues was calculated to test his responses and draw conclusions to be added to the next scientific paper to be published.

"I am neither fond of not abhor the robotics conferences." Blues smiled wanly, he had said similar sentences about many things since his "birth." Light seemed convinced Blues would develop preferences eventually but that didn't seem to be the case.

Light sighed as he finished hooking up the wires and continued absently as he started up the machine, "Dr. Wily seemed pleased with the last conference."

"Oh?" Blues perked up the slightest bit. He had never gotten to really know Dr. Wily because he was hardly ever in the Labs. Light seemed to be the one in charge of overseeing the projects for the company while Wily mostly stayed over at the corporate headquarters.

"Yes, he said there were some highly interested investors. Pretty soon we may have enough funding to work on more androids like you." Light was now staring intently at the screen as he typed on the attached keyboard, only half paying attention to what he or Blues said.

There was a silence as Blues processed the information he was just given. "More androids like me?"

"Oh yes. You were a bit expensive, being the prototype and all. It took quite a bit to get the funds together to build you, but with new investors we should be able to start making more and at less of a cost. Wily explained it all to me but I didn't get half of it." Light continued absently tapping at the keyboard and intently staring at the screen as information scrolled down it. Blues decided not to respond. Besides, even if he did Light was so engrossed in what was on the monitor that he probably wouldn't notice if Blues did anything short of run screaming from the room.

The rest of the afternoon wore on in a similar manner: Light would chatter while hooking or unhooking cables, wires, and such between Blues and various diagnostics computers of varying kinds then lapsed into silence while the diagnostics were running. Blues answered question asked him in the manner he always did and was silent while the doctor was. Then finally, Light had finished with the last machine. "That wasn't so bad, now was it?"

"Why would it be 'so bad'?" Blues asked.

Light chuckled, "Well, my boy, most humans don't enjoy this sort of thing. We find having an exam to be tedious and intrusive. Though I suppose you wouldn't find it as intrusive as a human would."

"I suppose not," Blues replied evenly. He sat on the examining table, waiting obediently for his next order.

Light cleared his throat, "Why don't you run along back to your quarters? I have a lot of data to go over and discuss with Wily." Blues dutifully slipped down from the table, left the room, and started his return journey across the complex back to the warehouse where his quarters were. Light watched as he walked out of sight, then sagged as he picked up a printout and scanned down the readouts. "It's as we feared..."

-----

Blues calmly finished his journey to his quarters, opened the door and closed it quietly, then just as calmly picked up the nearest object and calmly hurled it at the wall. No, he wasn't calm at all! He ran his fingers through his hair in a quick, unconscious imitation of his creators, then sat down on his bed.

His quarters were rather sparse, what did an android need? A bed, a nightstand with a lamp beside that, a desk with a chair and computer, and a little mirror with a comb as well as a closet with some clothes. The comb and clothes were mostly for the robotics conventions because he hardly ever wore civilian clothing while inside the laboratories. Blues sighed, staring blankly at the desk and computer. Truthfully he hated the conventions, the testing, being treated like a science experiment.

Sure, the attention was fun at first, but Blues quickly felt smothered by it all. He hadn't understood the feeling until the first robotics convention. Until the moment that he was formally introduced as the first fully functional autonomous android everyone but the Light and Wily had thought he was a normal human boy. Possibly one of the scientists' child or grandchild, and had treated him as thus. It was a nice feeling, not to be poked, prodded, or inspected the way he was shortly afterwards. Blues longed for that normalcy again. Or least a little more freedom.

And now... now there were going to be more. Probably with his exact face. He would be obsolete, just a prototype and probably considered far inferior to anything to come next. He was the Model A and the Model T was about to be introduced. What would happen to him now? Probably discarded like all other obsolete machines. Or worse, put into a museum next to the first computer. Blues shuddered at the thought. Well, maybe he would just save them the trouble. He smiled at the thought, why not? He could eat, he had the clothes, he looked human enough unless you knew what to look for. He could just dress as a civilian, slip out, and disappear. Go exploring, see the world.

Blues's smile turned into a wide grin as he thought about it. Then he quickly moved over to the closet and began sorting out his clothes. A long sleeved shirt, pants, a scarf and hat since it was late autumn and chilly out. He grabbed a jacket as well, hoping he wouldn't look too warm once he got out. Getting out shouldn't be too hard if he was casual about it. If that didn't work there were other ways to get out. Windows, emergency exits, the ventilation system, the possibilities were near endless.

Blues dressed quickly, then typed something on the computer. When he was satisfied with what he had done, he quietly slipped out of his room and made his way down the corridor. With any luck he could slip out with the other interns and such going home for the day.

-----

Light sat in Wily's office explaining the readouts from the tests he had run on Blues earlier that day. Light had to explain the readouts rather than let Wily look over them himself because even though Wily did technically have a doctorates in robotics he had never really been very good at it. If they hadn't met and become friends in graduate school Wily would probably be some third rate assistant for the lead roboticist at some other company or some such thing. As it stood Light never regretted this because he was much happier letting Wily take care of the tedious business of actually running the company and being the charismatic figurehead. Light was happiest alone in his labs fiddling eternally with this one last circuit board in his latest project.

"Look," summed up Light, "this readout means there's a drastic flaw in his power systems. If we shut him down and do some work on him we can repair it before it becomes a problem."

Wily nodded and was thoughtful a moment. "How much would it cost though?" Always the bottom line for Wily.

Light sighed and dropped the papers on Wily's desk, leaning back in the chair in front of it. "Does it matter? We can afford the cost for repairing Blues, we can't afford to lose our poster boy."

"We're about to start making more androids, Blues has served his purpose for now. We can simply shut him down and leave it at that."

"I beg to differ," countered Light quickly. "We haven't made the new models yet, and we both know those will be more industrial than Blues is. Blues is a good all around show piece that's versatile and life-like. Besides, how would it look if we shut him down for having a power core flaw? It'd look like we couldn't repair him, like we didn't even try. And our investors might wonder if everything we've built so far has this fatal flaw."

Wily sighed, "You're right you know. Even though the real reason you want to fix him is because you're so attached to your little masterpiece."

"Our masterpiece," Light reminded him.

Wily harumphed. "I suppose you're right about that part." Wily didn't seem like he meant it, he almost looked a little jealous as he said it. "What's the 'bot up to right now anyways?"

"Last we checked he was surfing the web. Should we tell him now or wait until tomorrow?"

"May as well wait until tomorrow, we can start making arrangements now but we can't do anything tonight. Just make sure you actually sleep some time tonight."

"You don't have to mother me, Wily. I haven't pulled an all nighter for a while now." They both chuckled over memories of nights past staying up until the sun rose working on some project or other in a garage when they were in their younger years. "See you tomorrow." Light rose to leave.

"Yes, see you tomorrow." Wily got up and patted Light on the back as he left.

-----

Things weren't so congenial the next morning when it was discovered Blues was missing. Light had gone to fetch him personally to break the bad news and had found the room empty, Blues's computer surfing the web all by itself. It seemed he had set up a simple 'bot to click random links in some sort of encyclopedia site. Of course Light panicked and now the whole lab was in an uproar as they searched for the missing prototype.

When Wily found out he was furious. Light had told him personally when Wily arrived at the company that morning. Light was worried and meek, but Wily became furious and yelled quite a bit. Wily blamed Light for Blues's disappearance. And when they found the surveillance tape of Blues just waltzing out of the complex with a group of specialists and interns Wily blamed the shoddy security and negligent employees. The people who were on the tape and the security on shift at the time were found, questioned, then fired. Light wanted to just reprimand them but Wily wouldn't budge. They had just lost a multi-million dollar product and heads will roll! Never mind he wanted the product in question shut down just the day before.

"You know Wily, it is possible Blues will come back eventually." Light was tired, it was the end of a long day and nothing had gotten done. Now they were at least a day behind on nearly every project the company had been working on besides Blues. It would take probably the better part of the week to get back into the swing of things and Wily was faced with a great deal of spin control ahead of him trying to keep this under wraps. He would have to explain that the android had gone missing but for now it was best to keep it quiet until they found out where he had gone and why. Hopefully Light was right and the wayward android would return on his own.

"I don't want to hear it right now Light. Just leave me alone." Light silently left the room and let Wily pace and worry on his own. Light hoped this wouldn't destroy their friendship, thought it would probably never be the same again. Light decided to take his mind off Blues for a bit by working on the designs for the new androids. The work had to be done and there was nothing more that could be done for Blues at the moment. Light was tired but he knew he couldn't get any sleep right now. As he ambled through the labs he looked around him and wondered how Blues must have seen it to just up and leave one night without so much as a "good bye" note.


	2. Job Well Done

Hello again. Just a few things I want to get out of the way before heading right into chapter two. First off: a ginormous thanks and mad props to two people who've been helping me get this fic up and on the net! If it weren't for my darling fiancee Neuroticfanboy and my wonderful friend Chaos Blue you would not be reading this. Amayjing, in't it? You guys rock, you're my inspiration and you keep me going! 3 Also, I'd just like to say this is not a prequel to a Weary Warrior. Not that anyone said it was, but I just want to say now that that's not my goal. Even if I seem to like the letter W and alliteration.

And the disclaimer, I don't feel the need to put it in every chapter but I feel I should for the first few at least. I don't own these characters, I'm not near wealthy enough. I did, however, diligently type every single word of this fic myself. Except for part of a line my friend Chaos wrote and I liked so I used and the name of the fic itself, which was Chaos too. And uh... there's a nice little reference in there for those who like inside jokes. Enjoy.

-----

It had been over a year since Blues's disappearance. At first Wily wouldn't tell the media anything, but after a week it became apparent that the wayward robot was not coming back and Wily had to say something. He made the official announcement that the prototype android had vanished from the complex and at the time there were no concrete facts Wily could share with the public, but they suspected foul play. Naturally a full investigation was underway and Light Wily Robotics Industry would make an announcement as soon as more was found out about Blues's disappearance. But as time passed there were no further announcements, and when asked about it LWRI simply stated that no new information had been discovered yet. Though in one interview an employee strongly suggested that an inside job was possible and ended the interview, as all the others before and after it, with a plea to the public to send any information they had on Blues to LWRI and reminded everyone that the company was offering a rather large reward to any information that led to the prototype's whereabouts.

The reward incentive was being a great help, and Wily was glad he had decided to give up the sum in order to recover Blues. Since then plenty of people had called the company claiming to have seen a person who looked remarkably like Blues, so many people that the company had set up a hotline just for such reports. Most were fakes, but enough led to leads on Blues that Wily decided to just keep up with it. Not that Wily bothered with any of this, that's what the private investigators were for: specialists skilled in finding runaways and kidnapped children. While they worked, Wily continued on with running the company and taking a more personal interest in their current batch of autonomous industrial robots.

"Where's Thomas?" Wily's secretary was used to these curt demands from Wily, he had been increasingly irate since Blues had disappeared.

"He is currently in the labs overseeing the construction of The Eight." The Eight was the name given to LWRI's latest big project: eight more fully autonomous humanoid robots. Unlike Blues these robots were planned to be the first in a line of robots, mass produced industrial robots to work in environments too dangerous for humans.

"Florence, I'm going to the labs. Don't forward any calls to me unless it's an emergency."

-----

Wily entered the area where the first android was under construction, still pulling his lab coat on. Working together to finish the schematics for The Eight had been slow going at first. It took months for Wily and Light to be on speaking terms again, but even though they had taken great strides to come to terms it seemed their easygoing partnership would never fully return. "Alright, let's start with oh-one." Wily went up to the first work station where construction on android model DRN 001 was near completion. Wily didn't understand why this prototype, like Blues, had the build of a prepubescent; but Light had done most of the outward designing for both models and Wily wasn't as interested in the two domestic models as he was the industrial ones. "How's the Variable Tool System installation coming?"

"The system should be fully installed by the end of the week. We'll be ready to activate him shortly after that, sir." Wily nodded over the information as he glanced at a progress chart. He gave a quick look over the nearly finished android to make sure the actual progress matched the chart, then moved onto the next model.

"And the maid, is she coming along as swimmingly as the general purpose assistant?" Wily disliked the second model as much as the first. Light may argue that smaller, more compact bodies were best for balance and what have you, or that they could build them any size they liked when they started mass producing the models, but Wily still didn't like such young looking robots. Well, they were practically Light's pet project and he would probably keep them for himself later anyways, Light had done that with several of their products, so he could have his own way if he wanted.

Light looked up from where he was tinkering with 002's insides and grinned broadly, waving the delicate instrument he had just been using to tinker at Wily. "Roll's coming along swimmingly alright. Pull up a chair and grab a screwdriver, we were just getting to the fun part." Light enthusiastically motioned to a tray of various implements placed handily near his elbow.

Wily gave a slight sound that was like a mix between a sigh and a scoff. "And what is the 'best part'?"

"Connecting the power core, of course! All those bits and pieces that need connecting, the intricate network of wires and cords, it's all just so interesting and fun. Come join us, we only just started."

"That's alright," Wily soothed. "I wouldn't want to detract from your enjoyment. Besides I had some other work I wanted to get to but felt the need to check on 'The Eight' before I did. So if you're overseeing oh-two I can assume everything's fine and move onto oh-three." Wily made to move to the next workstation in the large room when Light pushed away from the table 002 was lying on and stood to join Wily.

"I should probably look them over with you; it's playing favorites to spend more time on any one over the others."

"Alright, next is oh-three: the industrial manufacturing 'bot."

"Yes, the one the... customer specifically ordered with a pair of clippers on his head." Light seemed to have a brain fart trying to remember what to call the people who gave him money to make robots. He could remember every connection, every circuit in the computer that made up 002's brain, but he couldn't remember the term for the people he basically worked for. Wily shook his head.

"It does seem impractical, but he was quite insistent on that feature."

"Well, Cut Man's just as far along as the others last I checked. Though we had some trouble with the mechanism for making the clippers function properly and one of the interns nearly had his finger off." Light chuckled a bit at the memory, it seemed so much funnier now.

Wily was looking over the progress sheet for 003 and double checking with the model itself while Light was chattering lightly. He poked and prodded for a bit, then nodded in satisfaction before moving onto 004. "Is the construction 'bot still ahead of schedule?"

Light nodded, "Yes, it seems he's been the easiest to assemble and had the fewest hitches along the way. While we're still putting the finishing touches on the rest Guts Man could probably already be activated."

"That's certainly good news, though it's probably best to just leave him sit until the others are finished. Won't it be an achievement to activate them all at once?" Wily's eyes shone as he thought about. Light was glad to see Wily finally look excited and happy about something, he had seemed so upset since...

"But I'm a little worried about Ice Man. You know how damaging it is for a computer to become too cold and he'll be exploring the coldest parts of the Earth."

"Don't worry so about oh-five, we agreed when designing him that the insulation and such would be enough for him to move freely about either pole and not freeze over. With most computers you have to worry more about them over heating than under heating." Wily paused as he was going over 005's checklist, "How did he end up so cute? I don't remember his blueprints being quite so... sugary."

Light shrugged, "We put Julia in charge of his team and she insisted on making a few 'minor adjustments on just the surface' because the customer wanted something 'very user friendly.' I agreed so long as it didn't interfere with any of his inner workings." Julia was known for her obsession with cute things, this was just another example of it. Wily shook his head and simply moved on down the line, the investors would probably like it anyways so it didn't much matter.

"And the demolitions 'bot, no more explosions?" Earlier there was an accident during part of 006's assembly and a building shaking explosion had ensued. Afterwards it was agreed that live bombs should be installed **after** he was completed.

"None that I know of, though the fact that he survived the explosion is a good indication that Bomb Man would survive a rather large explosion and still be intact." Something certainly desired of a robot designed specifically to blow up large objects.

"And his personality matrix, no more bugs in the coding?" A short test run of the matrix before copying the coding into the model itself had to be done for all the androids before the coding was copied into each android. Alas, Bomb Man's personality seemed rather unlike the one they had planned him to have and he needed a great deal of recoding done before he was ready to be himself.

Light sighed, "He's still a party animal. We may have to start completely over and that would set the whole project back a month at least." Wily frowned, they had a deadline to meet.

"We'll just have to keep working until we find out what the errors are. But we may as well assign someone to start over from scratch just in case." With that taken care of they moved onto 007. "So both cooling systems have been installed?" Wily looked from the chart over to the android who was still very much in pieces on the worktable. The concerns Light had for 005 freezing seemed silly to Wily compared to the possibility of 007 simply melting into a puddle of goo while on the job.

"As well as the super emergency back up system, it wouldn't do for Fire Man to overheat while working in a forge." Light absently wondered who would win if Fire Man and Ice Man got into a fight while Wily worried over whether their choice in alloys would withstand the intense temperatures needed to melt and mold steel. Light laid a reassuring hand on Wily's shoulder, "We'll do some extreme testing before we officially present him to the customers. We'll double check, test, and rebuild until he goes above and beyond their expectations." Wily sighed, he knew that's what they would do anyways but sometimes it was nice to have someone basically tell you it would "all be okay."

"Then there's just the power plant worker 'bot."

Before Wily could continue Light cut in, "All his electrical bits are fully insulated, we've made sure he's quite grounded, and the initial testing has been quite encouraging. Next to Guts Man he's been the easiest to work with." Wily was nodding over the readout that went with 008 as Light listed off the concerns Wily showed with every one of The Eight's specialties and reassured Wily that the project was going as planned.

"In that case I see nothing further for me here. We already did the hard part in designing these fellows to work properly, assembling them should be a piece of moist, delicious cake. In fact, you know once they go into production making them would be the job of a simple assembly line. We can just leave these to the employees, or wait... you wanted to work on oh-two. You did say the power cores were your favorite part."

"Oh indeed, I hope they haven't gotten too far into installing it." Light ambled back to 002's work station with a bounce to his step.

Then Wily retired to his own labs for the rest of the evening to work on his own research. Later on Light joined Wily to help with the research as an assistant. Light really felt Wily was close to a break through and wanted to be the one there to see it with him, and to be the first to congratulate him. And so work continued into the late hours, most of the employees for LWRI went home for the evening to rest and relax before putting the nose back to the grind stone the next day.

-----

Thus time went by, the week was up, and all the new androids were activated right on time. There was a great deal of celebration within the laboratory as everyone gave a big sigh of relief; they could all go home on time for a change! A memo was written and sent out to each of the purchasers and after some initial testing was done an announcement was sent to the local media that LWRI's latest project, an achievement that would revolutionize mankind just as the internet had, was finished. The scientific community swooped down on the latest highly advanced AIs and proclaimed them a great success, an achievement Light could be proud of. Wily chafed that Light got most of the praise for their androids, but felt saying anything would make him seem vain and childish. Instead he made the finishing touches to the scientific paper he had written detailing his latest robotics breakthrough that would help revolutionize how destroyed and disabled machines would be repaired.

Unfortunately, Wily published the paper as soon as it was finished, but a short few days after the announcement of The Eight was made. Most everyone was exceptionally excited about mass producing AIs advanced enough to seemingly think on their own and lead other less advanced AIs in the workforce, revolutionizing how the workforce would work. Hardly anyone cared about how what was currently scrap metal could be repaired back into a working machine when new ones were so easy to make. Wily really chafed at this and silently blamed Light for hogging all the glory, but there was precious little he could do about it at the moment. So Wily decided right then and there: it was time to move on. He began making preparations for a separation from his long time friend, Light would make a worthy enough opponent.

-----

Greg was usually a fairly modest man, he admitted he wasn't the best at swimming nor had he a "poker face" so he hardly ever did well at the game, but Greg would be one of the first to tell you he was great at his job. Probably even one of the best, he was good at tracking down people. He was good at finding leads and figuring out which to follow, and he wasn't too bad at using a computer to track someone's activities. Yes, Greg could find people who didn't want to be found, and made good money off bringing them in. And now he was so close to finding the latest target that he was wondering if "finding multi million dollar android" or "outwitting highly advanced AI" would look better on his resume. It didn't matter if the "multi-million dollar highly advanced AI" had no real world experience and was about as good at dodging him as your average spoiled teenage runaway, Greg was all about making himself look good.

Though Greg had to admit that the more real world experience said AI accumulated the cleverer he became at covering his tracks. Greg had almost lost the target after he had purchased a lap top computer, but plane tickets, even under an assumed name, could still lead someone who knows what to look for right to the purchaser. It had been a long year and a half so Greg was glad when he realized just how close he had gotten to the android. The last place the android had stayed seemed to have been his most recent, only vacating it two weeks prior and Greg was planning a nice long vacation with his payment.

But such musings would have to wait, he had arrived at his destination. Greg looked at the building to match the address: a dilapidated hotel that had plans for charging nightly, weekly, or even monthly. A place where people who were in the middle of moving or renovations might go, that is if the place didn't look so run down. Greg decided to ask around before checking the room in question, the room might be the wrong one, it might be the wrong place altogether, or the target could have checked out just the day before. He hoped that it was none of the above and that his hunt was at an end, that he could go home and sleep in his own comfortable bed with regular meals again. He said a silent prayer as he opened the office door.

-----

"Yeah, I thought it was weird for a kid that young to be wanting a room all to himself," conceded the manager as he led Greg to the very same room number on the slip of paper in his pocket. "That boy couldn've been older than ten or eleven an' he wants a room all to himself for three weeks. I suppose he's just a runaway like you says, but I figure it's better if he has a place to sleep 'least while he here an' I'd ask the police quiet like if there're any missing boys around here. 'Course there weren't any so I just let him stay."

"Very kind of you, is this it?"

"Yeah, this is it, should I unlock it or do you want to knock first?" The manager was holding up the cardkey to the room as a point of emphasis.

"Why don't you knock, it's less suspicious if you do than a complete stranger."

"What should I say?"

"If he asks just say there's been some complaints and you'd like a word with him. But don't give up any information." The manager obliging knocked on the door, announcing that it was "management" and then waiting for a response. There was none, so he knocked again a bit louder and more insistently. Still there was no reply. "Have you seen him lately?" Greg was a little worried the target had fled without telling anyone here.

"Yeah, a couple days ago I seen him come in but I don't think no one's saw him since." Greg was more than just a little worried now.

"Unlock it, he might be gone already." The manager slid the card through the card slot, then swung the door open and let Greg through first, then followed behind him to make sure he didn't do anything too suspicious.

The room was about what Greg expected it to be, old but neat, with an untouched bed and perfectly clean bathroom. He saw what looked like a make shift work bench on the other side of the bed with what appeared to be tools, a device of some kind, a few papers and a laptop sitting on top of it. The very same laptop model the target had bought over a year ago in a department store two cities from his starting point! This gave Greg some hope, why would he simply abandon all this stuff he seemed to need so badly up until now? He rounded the bed to go get a closer look when he stopped dead in his tracks, the manager nearly running him over. The manager gave a loud gasp and small curse when he saw what caused Greg to stop short so suddenly. "Oh my god, did he just DIE in my hotel?!"

There on the floor crumpled in a heap lay the target. He had the appearance of a prepubescent boy with dark hair, and was tightly holding a screwdriver in one hand while the fingers on the other twitched rhythmically ever so slightly. His eyes were open and staring blankly at the ceiling while his mouth spasmed to the same rhythm as his fingers. "I don't think so," replied Greg absently to the manager as he crouched down to get a better look at the boy on the floor. There was a large puddle of some sort of brown liquid under him, it would probably leave another stain in the already stained carpet. Greg carefully tilted the boy's head so his left ear was pointing up then reached for said ear. He smiled as he looked behind the surprisingly fleshy ear to see what appeared to be a tattoo, "DRN 000," in even, mechanical numbers.

"He's dead, i'n't he? We have to do something! I'll... I'll call 911!" The manager was pacing a slight bit as he panicked about the dead body, then jerked towards the door before Greg told him to stop.

"Don't, there's no need," stated Greg rather triumphantly. "There's nothing they could do for him."

"'Course not, he dead!" The manager wailed the last statement, quite obviously in panic mode.

Greg sighed, it seemed he'd have to reveal the target's true nature. "They can't do anything because he's a robot." The manager looked at Greg like he was crazy. "I'm serious, and I'm going to call his owner to come pick him up. Don't worry, we want to keep this as quiet as you do. You won't be in any trouble." The manager sighed in relief, then came over to inspect the "corpse."

Meanwhile, Greg pulled out his cell phone and dialed in a number, then waited for the other end to pick up. "Hello, Wily? Yes, I know how late it is, but is it too late to send someone to come pick up your missing android? Yes, it's Greg and yes, I did find him, I'm staring at his model number right now." Greg's smile only widened, another job well done.


	3. Standing Around Doing Nothing

Happy New Year! I wanted to get this up earlier... a lot earlier. -- It took me forever to get this chapter out, and I hate it. Hate it hate it hate it! But everyone else loves it so you get to read it anyways. So uh... consider this a New Year's gift. As always: big thanks to Chaos Blue for being my muse and Neuroticfanboy for making me sit down and type! Hopefully the next chapter won't be such a struggle, I actually have an idea where I'm going with the second game! 8D Enjoy.

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Blues opened his eyes tentatively, blinking a few times as he did so. He was staring at a strange ceiling in confusion, his last memories were... were in the hotel. He was having trouble remembering what had happened back then, he had no idea how much time had passed, where he was, or how he even got there. All Blues could recollect were pieces of fragmented memory accompanied by searing pain. Blues frowned, why did he remember searing pain?

"Unpleasant dreams?" Blues sat up quickly at hearing that all too familiar voice. Wily was standing just to Blues's left; if he had bothered to look around rather than piece together his memory Blues wouldn't have been so surprised.

"You know, you've cost us a great deal of trouble," Wily continued when Blues didn't respond. "Do you know how much it cost to build you? Several million dollars, that's what. And then you just walk out of the laboratories like you own it. Poof, millions of dollars, years of work, all our hopes and dreams gone for no apparent reason! Do you realize how embarrassing it was to explain that our pride and joy had vanished? Or how worried we were about you? You didn't even give a hint that you were unhappy and just left! What could you possibly want that we didn't provide? All you had to do was ask if you wanted something! I mean, you were the poster boy of one of the wealthiest companies in the whole world! But no! You had to run off into the night to live off the streets! You could have at least called or even left a note, you know. And vanishing right after we found out about your power core! You couldn't wait for us to repair it? You just had to leave right then and there without taking a moment to think about the ticking time bomb inside you? You're lucky your core simply failed rather than exploded! I still can't believe the price I had to pay to clean that mangy hotel you were found in. And the cost of sending those investigators to find you! I had to spend the entire cost of your brain on people tracking you half way across the country! Like you even appreciate having a brain, let alone the cost of it. If you did you might have taken a moment to think about what you were doing before doing it! And your timing couldn't have been any worse, you completely screwed up my plans!"

"Plans? What plans?" Blues's face had remained blank through the whole rant, even when he had asked the question though he shifted his weight to better focus on Wily.

Wily coughed and shoved his hands in his pockets. "There'll be time for that. It's been nearly a year since we found you and a lot has happened since then. Follow me and I'll explain everything while I give you a tour of my new facilities." Wily turned towards the door behind him and began walking towards it, simply expecting Blues to follow.

Blues slid off the work table he was on and, deciding he had no better options at the moment, decided to follow Wily and receive his "tour." "So where are we?"

"All in do time, boy. When a story needs to be told it's best to start at the beginning and work one's way from there. Let's see now... the day you left was the progress test, yes? What Light didn't tell you was we had discovered a flaw in some of the prototypes for you power core. The tests he ran that day were to check your core for that flaw. In case you haven't figured this out: your core has that same flaw. Unfortunately by the time one of the investigators I had hired to find you, some fellow by the name of Gary or some such thing, did finally track you down it was too late." Wily glanced down at Blues as he was speaking to gauge the android's reaction, Blues put a hand to his chest with an expression somewhere between scared and sick on his face.

"And why didn't you tell me about my core then?"

"What good would it have done to tell you that night rather than wait until the next day? We would have had to wait until then to do anything about it so telling you before then seemed pointless. But there was also the concern of what to do with you once we discovered you did indeed have the defect. Light felt it would be best to quietly shut you down, there was the next set of androids to build and you had served your purpose. Light didn't want to have to worry about an obsolete model when he had bright, shiny new toys to play with." Wily sighed, "Light was already planning on a replacement for you, I'm afraid the core was just an excuse to ignore you."

Wily was watching Blues from the corner of his eye again, carefully observing any show of emotion on the android's usually emotionless face. "I, on the other hand, felt you were too important to just shut down. It may have been for selfish reasons concerning the company and keeping face in front of our clients, but I sincerely didn't want you destroyed. After all, did anyone destroy ENIAC when it became obsolete?"

"No," replied Blues evenly. "It was shut down, taken apart, and put into several museums and universities. That sounds like a rather unpleasant prospect to me."

Wily looked slightly ruffled at Blues answering what he felt was a purely rhetorical question. "The point is it wasn't destroyed." Wily stopped to compose himself before continuing down the hall. "That next door has something I want to show you, but I have to explain a little more first. After you left, Light and I went on to design eight more androids. Unlike you, these were meant to be mass produced and sold for industrial and domestic purposes. You, Blues, were meant to be unique and one of a kind; at least that's how I've always felt. Anyways, one of the robots was meant to be an all purpose, domestic android to assist people in their every day lives. Light wanted to keep the prototype for himself as your replacement and his own assistant. That man was always dangerously anti-social." Wily frowned and shook his head at the recollection before continuing.

"Besides him there was another domestic model meant for house keeping and the other six were industrial robots meant to work in conditions too harsh for humans." Wily opened the door and motioned for Blues to enter first. Inside Blues saw what he assumed were once fully functional humanoid robots, though their bodies were now charred and torn apart. They were lined up neatly on a row of work tables with several tools and other equipment nearby. "These were DRN models 003 through 008. Shortly after they were activated Light and I split ways and I brought them with me. He still has all of their blueprints and such so it seemed fair. He got to keep his little pet robots and I got to keep my little worker robots." Blues was staring at their broken bodies, horrified at the damage they had taken.

"What happened to them?"

"What did I say about a story needing to be told in the correct order?" Wily snapped at Blues. Then he calmly continued, "DRN 001 did that to them, Light fitted him with a plasma weapon and sent him after me. It was a nasty battle and Light's 'bot took a great deal of damage as well. While Light was repairing him I managed to repair mine own as well, but that little blue midget used their own weapons against them!"

"Weapons? Industrial robots have weapons?" Blues looked up at Wily inquisitively.

"Oh, I got ahead of myself there, pardon me. When I found out what Light was doing with oh-one I modified three through eight to have weapon of their own based on what they were originally intended for. For instance: oh-six was meant as a demolitions robot so he's built to be quite sturdy as well as programmed to handle explosives with precision. I modified him use those explosives as a defensive weapon against oh-one. And while oh-six did deal a fair amount of damage, he wasn't meant to withstand a plasma gun." Wily tsked as he surveyed the damage dealt to the nearly destroyed robot.

"I'm afraid that these six are nearly beyond repair and rebuilding them will take more time than I currently have. Light is preparing to attack me again, he's gone quite mad with power lust and is quite furious over my parting ways with him. Before he strikes again I want to be prepared, build eight more defenders and repel Light. That's where you come in, my boy. You were meant to be an assistant as well, but unlike Light's mass produced model you are quite unique and your assistance would be invaluable. Will you help me keep Light from causing any more damage?" Wily put a hand on Blues's shoulder as he asked the question, looking sincerely into his eyes.

Blues took a moment to think about the proposition; he wasn't sure what exactly was going on. Wily's story seemed so at odds with how Blues had perceived Light, a kind elderly man with a passion for his work. "Alright, if you're not going to deactivate me I don't really have a reason to run away again."

"That's my boy!" Wily enthusiastically slapped Blues on the back, clearly pleased to have him along for assistance. "I'll show you around the rest of the laboratory. I currently have eight more RMs in the works and we have a tight deadline to work with."

"RMs?" Blues quirked an eyebrow at the unfamiliar term. "What does that stand for?"

"Light never told you? It's a class of autonomous android called Robot Master, you're one of them. The very first, in fact. It's a class that denotes a highly advanced AI, like none the world has ever seen before. Robot Masters are meant to work alongside humans as near equals on top of being in charge of other robots with lesser AIs," Wily explained as he lead Blues out of the room and down the hall they had traveled earlier. "So you're quite special, my boy. The very first and one of the most advanced RMs, you're not going to be obsolete for a long time." He opened a door and showed Blues inside. On eight separate tables were

dandroids in various stages of construction. It was hard to tell if they were being taken apart or put together just from the first glance, but Blues assumed Wily was putting them together.

"I assume these are the eight RMs you were talking about."

"You're a quick one, that's exactly what these are. Or will be when they're finished. Half are based on some of the previous RMs' designs, the others were purchased from other companies and are in the midst of being refitted for battle. With your help I should be able to have them all up and operational before Light attacks again." Wily grinned at Blues as he said this, glad for the help and eager to work. He finished showing Blues around the laboratory and the specifics of each workstation, then showed him the rest of the facility. Or rather, where supplies and such were. Blues calculated he only saw about half of what was really there, not including any levels or wings beyond what Wily had shown him. It was hard to tell just how big the facilities were as Blues saw no windows or doors leading outside since he had awoken.

Wily set to work right after they finished the tour. Blues, of course, picked up everything very quickly and with only a little loose guidance from Wily was able to finish work on the RMs faster than Wily alone could have. Within only a couple months Blues had completed them all. During that time Blues hardly left the lab room with the RMs, while Wily was barely ever in the room. Once he had realized Blues could handle the work alone and was doing an excellent job Wily spent most of his time on "other preparations" which he explained were necessary for his "repelling Light's insidious attacks" and that Blues "need not concern himself" with these mysterious preparations. Blues thought Wily needed some better excuses.

During the months that Blues worked Wily had at first tried to ask what Blues he had done and where he had gone after he left the laboratories. Blues responded with his own question: "Where are the things I had when you first found me?"

Wily replied, "If you don't feel like talking about it, I understand." Then ceased asking questions. Blues decided he needed to find his belongings as soon as possible. Following through was a little harder, Wily tended to drop in on him randomly and always expected him to be in the room working on the RMs. After Wily started leaving him alone Blues would sneak out a minute or two after a visit and snoop around for ten to fifteen minutes before returning to the lab room and continuing work. He still hadn't found his stuff yet, but it was only a matter of time before Blues would search the whole area.

But then time ran out. Blues was staring down at the completed Wood Man, most ridiculous robot ever in Blues's opinion, and wondering to himself, "Well... now what?" Wily had never told him what to do after he finished the RMs; simply that Blues was to stay in the lab and work on the RMs. But what excuse could Wily have for keeping him locked up now? Blues put down his tools and headed for the door. Wily insisted on activating all the RMs himself so there was nothing left for Blues to do but leave. Just after opening the door though, Blues walked right into Wily. He frowned at seeing the android out and about.

"What are you doing?"

"Coming to see you, of course," Blues replied calmly. "I just finished working on Wood Man and was coming to get you. But since you're here already that saves me a lot of trouble." Wily harumphed and went to go check on Wood Man. He looked over the RM and inspected every inch quite thoroughly.

"Alright, I suppose you are done." The man and the android stood for a moment silently staring at each other, neither seeming to know what to do. It occurred to Blues that Wily had never planned beyond setting Blues to the task of finishing the work he had started. Or perhaps Wily hadn't anticipated Blues finishing up before he had completed whatever plans were in the works. Those same plans Blues had interrupted by leaving over a year ago.

"What next, then?" Blues looked up at Wily with the same blank expression he always had on his perfectly formed face. Being in complete control of one's appearance at all times had its uses.

Wily stood for a moment's silent reflection before coming to an answer. "What would you like to do, my boy?" Blues had to fight the urge to grimace, he had hated that term from the start.

"Being a machine I have no wants or dreams."

"Surely you want something or you wouldn't have wandered away from the labs with no apparent provocation." Blues nearly did grimace that time, Wily had him there. But then, Blues knew something that would definitely get Wily off his case.

"Well..." he drawled out as if in deep though, "I suppose I would like my property back."

Wily paused for a moment, then seemed to have a sudden inspiration, "I know what you can do, my boy. Come with me." With that he turned and left the RM construction room and started down the hallway at a vigorous pace, simply expecting Blues to follow him as he had in the past. Blues gave a slight sigh and followed obediently.

However, instead of just going along that portion of the laboratories as Blues expected, and had already explored, Wily went to a lift and took them to a level Blues had not explored while he was sniffing around the facility. After ascending a few levels Wily stopped the lift and led Blues down a hallway identical to the one they had just left. After a short walk Wily stopped abruptly in front of a door and opened it, motioning for Blues to enter first. Blues stepped in and quickly looked around, the room he entered was quite large, more like a warehouse than a laboratory as Blues expected. The warehouse was humming with activity as industrial robots worked on what appeared to be several assembly lines of smaller robots. The nearest line was turning out mettools at a good pace with more humanoid robots, sans legs, working at the far end. None of them stopped or looked up when Blues and Wily entered the room.

"RMs were meant to oversee large groups of lesser AIs, here's the perfect chance to practice." Wily motioned to all the industrial robots working on the lines.

Blues walked over to one of the lines, before him half constructed robotic birds were having their insides soldered. "What are these for?" Blues didn't see what purpose most of the robots held or why Wily was building them.

"Oh, the normal thing, construction bots and the like. Mostly I'm trying to start my own robotics company and these are the first lines. I can't let Light have a strangle hold on the robotics market, it's just not good business sense." Blues nodded and said nothing, keeping his face blank. Light had never had a strangle hold on the robotics market, the fact that Wily had bought RMs and had them converted to his uses was proof enough of that. Unless he bought them from Light, but that didn't seem like it would be in Wily's character.

"I'll let you get to work then." Wily turned and left the room, shutting the door on his way out. Blues didn't have a chance to even ask any questions before he left. After all, what did Wily expect him to do? The robots were already automated, and all of them had rather simple AIs. Blues sighed and went further into the room, may as well try to figure out what was going on rather than stand around doing nothing.


	4. The End

Uhm... yeah... I lost all motivation to write this. I have no idea, I just can't write for it anymore. Not that it matters much, it's not like we don't know what's going to happen. Sorry if you were looking forward to it. I'm posting what little I had written, and if you must know I realized I could write myself out of the corner that I had written if Wily had already finished Blues's armor but hadn't given it to him left and had contigency plans ready. For some reason I think he'd have a Plan B ready. And a Plan C... D... and so forth. So yeah... enjoy.

Disclaimer reminder: I don't own any of Capcom's characters.

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Blues stood overlooking the large room he had been left in for the last months with a clipboard in hand. He had to admit there was something very satisfying with being in charge of a room full of other robots. This left him feeling a little conflicted: he was angry that he was so easy to please, that his whole purpose in life was so simple; but at the same time he felt a little proud that what humans spent their whole lives searching for and some never found he had discovered and was doing with really no trouble at all.

Of course, Blues didn't let that distract him from his real goals. Almost immediately after being put in charge of the assembly line Blues cut out as many of the simple robots as possible and reprogram them to search the hallways and rooms in the immediate area. He wanted to know as much about the layout of Wily's laboratories as possible and hopefully find his computer and other belongings.

In the month that Blues had been in the assembly room Wily had not once come back to check on him, so it was a surprise when the scientist stalked in and walked right up to Blues. "What are you doing here at a time like this?!" The scientist seemed quite upset and ready to tear off someone's head. Unfortunately it seemed he had targeted Blues.

"At a time like what? What's going on?"

"We're under attack, that menace has already taken out two of the RMs and destroyed more robots than have been made in the last two hours. Now stop playing overlord with the assembly line and come help me get oh-nine and fourteen back in working order!" Wily turned and stomped out of the room, Blues followed much more quietly.

Wily lead Blues back to the workroom where he had first worked on the DWN models. The smoking remains of Metal Man and Flash Man were laid out on two work tables with a myriad of tools and supplies scattered near them in the laboratory. Wily pointed at Metal Man, "You start repairing oh-nine while I work on fourteen." With that Wily set to work without a second glance. Blues simply shrugged and moved over to begin restoring Metal Man.


End file.
